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Naturally Curly Hair

Do you have naturally curly hair? Do you love it? Hate it? Have a love-hate relationship with it? I know this last one is the way I feel about my naturally curly hair. Some days, my hair turns out great and others, not so much. It’s the nature of the beast and that beast is hard to tame! The pic below is from a day that my hair turned out well except for a funky part on top. That piece got clipped back! LOL!

I stared doing the Curly Girl method about 9 years ago, after reading about it on Naturallycurly.com. This method is to co-wash your hair with conditioner instead of using shampoo. I tried it for a couple of weeks and soon learned that my hair is not the type that can handle this method. My hair felt heavy and limp and I got a lot of build up on my scalp.

As I kept learning about curly hair, I wrote about different things I learned here. I used Deva Care Low Poo (which is now discontinued and I later realized the ingredients were not that natural) for years but then my hair seemed to no longer like it. I have been switching products to find something that my hair does well with. It has been a journey, let me tell you.

There are a lot of curly hair groups on Facebook so I joined a couple of them and have been learning a lot more about my type of curly hair. I have type 2C/3A curls and thought that was all I needed to know to choose products for my hair. I was definitely wrong. There are other characteristics to know about your curly hair before choosing hair products. Have you ever heard of hair porosity and density? Here is some great info about this on naturallycurly.com and some tests you can do to determine your hair porosity and density. I never knew about these two things and am learning now how important they are when choosing curly hair products.

About a month ago, I tried Kinky Curly Knot Today and Kinky Curly Curling Custard. They both get great reviews and can be found at Target, along with many other curly hair products, but my hair did not like them at all. Then I made the mistake of buying a Shea Moisture shampoo and conditioner that has protein. My hair apparently does not like protein and it made my locks feel weighed down and dull. That’s when I learned about hair porosity and did the tests that I mention above.

Next up was the Shea Moisture Baobab and Tea Tree Oils Protein Free Shampoo, Conditioner and Leave-In Detangler for low porosity hair. I have used this now a few times and here is what I like and don’t like so far. I can go about 3 – 4 days in between washes with this line, which I love! The shampoo seems a bit drying for my hair so I am trying to co-wash (just use conditioner) every other time I wash my hair. We will see if this one builds up too much on my hair and makes it feel limp.

I love the conditioner and even used it as a deep conditioner one day and my hair loved it! I put a handful of conditioner down my hair (not on the top of my head and scalp) and ran it through with my fingers. I then put a shower cap on, used my hair dryer on high heat, low air for a few minutes to open my hair’s cuticle and allow the conditioner to soak in and then left it on for about 30 minutes.

I can’t use a leave in conditioner because it just weighs my hair down way too much. But, what I have found my hair does like, is on day 2, 3 and sometimes 4, I can use a tiny bit of the leave-in detangler, rub it between my hands to spread it out, and then scrunch into my curls to give them moisture.

Here’s a pic of my hair after using the shampoo and conditioner. Good curls and shine and low frizz. BOOM! Now for some more hair days like this!

Another thing to keep in mind is that I live in Michigan and our winters are dry, dry, dry and summers are very humid. My hair looks amazing in the summer and not so much in the winter. It’s almost like I have a completely different head of hair in the winter. It’s because all the moisture gets sucked out and leaves me with a dry, frizzy mess. Ha ha! This pic gives you a good example of this. I did use a little of the leave in this morning to give my hair some moisture but it is still pretty frizzy.

Two products I still use and have since day one of starting this curly girl journey are Curly Hair Solution’s Curl Keeper (helps control frizzy hair) and Deva Care Arc Angel for my gel.

If you have unruly, crazy curls, don’t give up on finding the beauty in them! It can take a while but I promise if you keep at it, you will unleash your curl’s true potential! Embracing and loving your God-given curls is quite a journey but worth it!